Beach House continue to bounce around the world, come back in February for more shows before waking up from Teen Dream

Now begin the days when we hum the chorus of “I can’t believe 2010 is almost over.” A coda to that song could be, “I can’t believe that album came out this year.” It seems impossible that Joanna Newsom could have released Have One on Me as recently as February, or that The Magnetic Fields’ Realism made headlines and was promptly forgotten only the month before. Believe it or not, the same day that Realism came out, Beach House released Teen Dream on Sub Pop, which makes us feel a little like Rip Van Winkle looking back in disbelief.

It’s been a long and (probably) exhausting year for Beach House, who have been touring since Teen Dream hit shelves so many months ago. How do such ethereal, somnambulistic musicians have so much stamina? Tired or not, these B-more champs have announced final dates for Teen Dream, beginning shortly after both the album’s first anniversary and their return to the States from touring Australia. If you pre-order tickets, you’ll receive a limited-edition Beach House sweatshirt that will jog your friends’ long-term memory and remind them how much they liked “Walk in the Park.”

Apparently, The Decemberists want everyone in the whole world to know that they are done subjecting us to bloated, convoluted, proto-metal-prog-folk meta-opera for a while. They seem especially heavy-handed in their distinction of the forthcoming LP The King is Dead (due January 18 on Capitol and January 17 in Europe via Rough Trade) as a “deliberate turn toward simplicity” after 2009’s expertly performed, arranged, and recorded but piss-poorly conceived The Hazards of Love (TMT Review). Although, for whatever reason, they describe that record as “wildly ambitious” instead of “piss-poorly conceived.” Go figure.

Anyway, while we all wait and wonder what a simple album from Colin Meloy and co. might sound like, we can marvel at the satisfyingly straightforward list of tourdates they’ve just announced for 2011. The 16-city run kicks off at New York’s Beacon Theater on January 25 and culminates with a hometown show at Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall before making a left turn at Albuquerque and heading for Europe. Also, to keep the simplicity theme going, I’m told that the band will be touring in a Hyundai Accent, wearing their pajamas as their stage clothes, and listing only “bread crust” and “water” on their riders.

Oh, also, they’ll be performing the lead single from The King is Dead, “Down by the Water,” Thursday on Conan O’Brien’s ho-hum basic cable talk show with folk star Gillian Welch (who is also featured on seven of The King is Dead’s 10 tracks) as a special guest. (Please note that Gillian Welch is a totally different person than Gillian Anderson.)

If there’s one thing the men of Liars love, it’s witches. And if there’s one thing they love even more than witches, it’s releasing live recordings. (Sorry, witches. I know you are already in the dumps because Christine O’Donnell said mean things about you. But we can forget her now. Let the healing process begin… cut her face out of all the pictures we’re in together, etc.) For, only mere weeks ago, Liars released the Live at Shepherd’s Bush EP (TMT News), and now they’re already releasing a new one! This time it’s a full-on live ALBUM, entitled Live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and it’s available here.

To all who read this article hoping for news of a possible undead/Liars collabo, I am sorry for misleading you. Witches are just better, deal with it.

Live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg:

01. I Still Can See an Outside World
02. Clear Island
03. A Visit From Drum
04. We Fenced Other Gardens With the Bones of Our Owns
05. Scissor
06. The Overachievers
07. No Barrier Fun
08. Scarecrows on a Killer Slant
09. Sailing to Byzantium
10. Here Comes All the People
11. Plaster Casts of Everything
12. Hold Hands and It Will Happen Anyway
13. Proud Evolution
14. Freak Out
15. The Garden Was Crowded and Outside
16. Broken Witch

A lot can happen in 15 years. Children grow into young adults, a live action Garfield movie gets the green light, and the name Urkel loses all popularity in the world. And somewhere, off in Merry Olde England, an industrial/EBM giant of a band known as Nitzer Ebb returns from an epic, 15-year hiatus. Last week, the group released Industrial Complex, their first new album since 1995’s Big Hit. (After a European release earlier this year, it was previously only available here in the US as an import.) They’re currently gallivanting across the United States in support of said album, bringing joy and gloomy music to the people of America.

New York’s Zs have always reminded me of a carnival in the way they deliver their somewhat-controlled musical mayhem. Like a scene from a Baz Luhrmann film, the result is madness on a grand scale, yet the execution maintains a sense of striking beauty. Take this, for example.

In tune with said carnival-like tendency, the band has gone and pulled the ol’ switcheroo with two-thirds of its crew, making tenor sax man Sam Hillmer the only remaining member from the old setup. The new group now consists of a quartet of musicians, with new members Charlie Looker on guitar, WFMU’s Brandon ‘Marty McSorley’ Perry on DJ and electronics, and none other than eternal percussion wunderkind Weasel Walter on the kit. Some of you might be saying to yourselves, “fuckin’ A, what happened to the bros who conjured up Music of the Modern White (TMT Review) and New Slaves (TMT Review)?” Well have no fear, youngins. According to the band’s website, this classic incarnation of the band is still able and willing to perform on demand, and they hope to be able to reproduce those albums live on a regular basis.

Capitalizing on this new shift in the band’s direction, Zs already have a new record in the works! Well, sorta. The quartet will be reinterpreting and remixing tracks from New Slaves for The Social Registry on the all-too-likely-titled New Slaves II: Essence Implosion!, which is also going to feature a fairly stellar list of guest producers — folks like Genesis P. Orridge, Jim Thirwell, Dutty Artz, and Gabe Andruzzi (The Rapture).

Did you guys hear? iTunes is finally getting into The Beatles! He’s been listening to every album in chronological order. He says he needs to listen to them all again, but Revolver is definitely “the coolest.” I didn’t want to overwhelm him by telling him about all of the B-sides, alternate transfers of the studio albums, and live recordings that he definitely doesn’t have. I thought about lending him my vinyl copy of The Esher Demos, since he really liked “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” but I’m almost sure he doesn’t have a record player.

At press time, the front page of Apple.com reads, “Tomorrow is another day. That you’ll never forget,” in what appears to be a misguided attempt to quote Beatles lyrics. This yearbook quote is accompanied by four clocks displaying the time of day in important locations worldwide when people ought to have something more important to do than listen to “an exciting announcement from iTunes.”

What does this mean, other than that Apple has a low opinion of its customer base’s capacity to use Google? According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple Inc. and EMI Group Ltd. have finally reached an agreement that will allow Apple to sell little AAC files of The Beatles catalogue. It is unclear whether the deal will allow other online music distributors to sell the catalogue as well, but one thing is sure:

With iTunes currently accounting for 90% of online music sales, America can get ready to buy The Beatles for the first time all over again.